Heavy metal lords Hammerfall make a double assault on the world with the release of their third DVD, _ together with a cover album, Masterpieces. Both are due on_ . After completing this great project, the band is now working on a new album, already with the new guitarist, Pontus. Frontman and vocalist Joacim told me that now, having finished the new album, everything seems so slow.

My first question concerns the change in the band, so how are you getting on with the new guitarist, Pontus?

We’re getting along very well, but first of all I have to tell that it was really sad that Stephan decided to leave the band but at the same time we’re really proud, since he became a pilot, and his dream came true; he got the opportunity to get a job as a commercial airline pilot. Now with Pontus being the new guitar player, it feels like he’s really enjoys playing in the band, and it also feels like an injection for the rest of us. Maybe we need this injection to get on.

Have you finished these new projects before he arrived to the band?

Yes, we had the first rehearsal with Pontus last week, and as to the live thing, we did it with him on TV last Friday. Everything seems very very new with Pontus. Both the DVD and the CD were all produced and done by the time he entered the band.

I think after releasing two DVDs already you must be practiced in how to do it. In what way is this new DVD different from the former ones, what new features can we see on it?

This DVD is much more professional, as to the layout, the production, and also the material. Altogether I think there are three hours of material on this DVD. We borrowed cameras from a TV station in Sweden, to get really high quality features. There’s also one and a half hour’s of documentary, we’re talking a lot, sitting in a castle, then we show some footage films, from 2002 up until 2007. For me it’s highly professional, a good release with some very cool features.

So during these six years, you collected consciously the materials?

Yeah, there were two or three video cameras on all the tours, so someone was always filming whatever we were doing and you know it’s been a hard work to do, to put everything together, to select the most high quality stuff.

So there were professionals as well who helped you during the production?

There werew a little of both. You know from the Swedish television company they made about forty-five minutes of footage, which is highly professional. Meanwhile there are some parts that are filmed with our own cameras.

I read on the promo page that it is structured like a movie.

I would say it’s more like a documentary. We start back in 2002, we were sitting there, talking, discussing what happened, then we show some footage filming, then we go back to the so-called studio, and then we show some more footage from the next period. It is a kind of continuation from 2002 till today. I wouldn’t consider it a movie, but rather a documentary. And the beginning, the first scene is so funny thatI had to watch it over and over again and I still laugh at it. It’s so funny, so weird.

Most of the bands don’t compile any DVD, why do you like doing it?

I think they show a different side of the band. A funnier side. This is what we think is fun to do. It is also something that I would like to see from many of my favourite bands. And nowadays we have so much material, if you don’t release it, what you’re gonna do with it? Put it in the drawer, back home, without showing it to anyone? I think it’s a cool thing to release a DVD.

Apparently we can see some short movies as well, what are they about?

They are about a lot of things being destroyed. We’re testing out some rental cars and things like that. It is, you know, a funny thing, like giving something extra, I mean on the personal level. We’re just showing a different side of ourselves.

On what bases did you select the material for the DVD?

The aim is just to show what we’re doing on tour, or in the studio when we don’t have anything else to do. People will laugh at it when they see the thing, I hope. But you shouldn’t try everything at home. 🙂

Could you tell me something about the cover artwork, who does it, what does it represent?

It’s the same guy who does everything from the Crimson Thunder, up until the last album, Treshold, and as to the DVD’s cover, it’s a mixture of all these. He just did it a couple of years ago and we said, wow, it’s cool, so now we used it. The protagonist grabbed some power from the bad guy from the Crimson thunder abum, his adversary, and now turned into something even bigger. I can’t really tell what its all about but, but it’s a kind of mixture.

What does the subtitle, Unruly, Unrestrained, Uninhibited suggests?

That’s a very good question, I have sometimes a hard time to remember them, they’re really tricky. 🙂 These three words kind of represent the Chapter V era, where we used three similar words, it’s a kind of wordplay.

Concerning the cover album, Masterpieces, I’ve read that you recorded the tracks within ten year’s time.

Actually these are the cover songs that we ever recorded. In the beginning we wanted to do covers that were maybe not so well-known to the people, we wanted to do songs that aremeant a lot to us and also meant a lot to the band. _ We wanted to put more focus on these bands, to pay tribute, to say hey, if you like Hammerfall, you might want to check out these bands, you know, they meant a lot to us. Besides a lot of these songs were B-sides, they ere on tribute albums, they wee hard to get. So we just wanted to put everything together and release it as a proper Hammerfall release.

What about the three new tracks?

They are basically all-time favourite songs, we had to do those. I didn’t have time to record vocals for some songs, because this was the time when I had vocal surgery. Then Skid Row, it’s a great party song. It is more rock’n’rollish one, so it was a little hard to sing that kind of song due to the fact that I’m not that kind of singer.

But you managed.

Yeah, I think it turned out very good, especially that one.

The cover artwork of Masterpieces also seems a kind of mixture to me.

Yeah, exactly, the symbols of every band are included, because every band whose track we covered has its emblem that appears on the artwork. I think it’s really cool. And it’s good to include the symbol also that is strongly connected to the band, I mean the hammer. It is important to maintain it, it is a crystal-clear trademark. When you see it you know it’s Hammerfall.

Are the three DVDs together make a kind of trilogy?

Yes, they are connected, because where the first DVD ends, the second DVD starts, and when the second DVD ends, the third DVD starts.

Why do the two releases, the DVD and the cover album come out at the same time?

Because we want to make a package with everything in it. If you wanna get both, you’re gonna get it in a value pack. We thought it would be a good idea to release them now, because we have no other releases planned for this year.

Having completed these projects, will you set out on tour?

We’re working on the songs of the upcoming album, actually. We’re recording it in August, and it is coming out in February next year.

Can you tell me something about the new album?

I think it’s too early now. We’re still putting together some songs. All I can say for know, that it’s heavier, it’s really fast, it’s Hammerfall.

Are you planning to make more DVDs later?

Yes, probably, We’ll see. As long as we have some good material to include, we1ll se. the people want it, so we should give it to them.

Yes, they seem to like this new wave of heavy metal. What does it mean to you?

What we’re representing for the past eleven years is the new era of heavy metal. We are the new generation, even though we’re not young any more, we’re thirty plus, we’re getting forty, soon we’re gonna be the old timers, and new bands come up, but in the late ’90s we were giving an injection that was badly needed. For me it’s a great thing that we can do it still after so many years, just doing what we wanna do, playing heavy metal. But of course there are many other bands that play this kind of music, one band cannot make a difference, you need more.

I guess you get a lots of feedbacks and suggestions, to what extent do you take it into consideration?

Well, writing songs and performing them is a very personal thing. I write songs that I wanna hear and I wanna sing. I don’t listen too much to people who say, you should do this, you should do that, I want a song about dragons or whatever. It doesn’t really work. So as long as I am happy, that’s the most important thing, that you write the music for yourself. And if people like it, it’s an extra motive. But maybe it you do something really bad, you should listen to the people. But apart from that you should listen to yourself and write the songs you wanna write and not listen too much to what other people say.

But are you influenced by music?

Of course, if you listen to the cover album, on it we included the bands that influence us. So I think our infuences are the other bands, or what we see on TV might inspire me to write lyrics, but I’d never let other people tell me, hey, I don’t like this new album, you should do it this way or that. I would never listen to that, because than you’re writing for someone else, but not yourself.

At last I would like to ask something about your appearance on stage, I’ve always found it very interesting. Could you tell me how do you make it up?

Good question, I think it all comes natural. We sit down in advance, of course, discussing what to do on stage, how it should look like, first of all. But then what happens during the gigs, it’s a natural development. It takes a while when we’re on tour, to make everything right, but we have a good connection between the band members. So it’s just a natural progress, the whole thing.

Thank you for the interview, it was a pleasure. I wish you all the best!